1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel catalyst system suitable for use in the production of hydrogen by the reaction of steam with carbon, to a process for the preparation of the catalyst system and to a process for the production of hydrogen by the reaction of steam with carbon employing said novel catalyst system.
2. Description of Art
The reaction of steam with carbon to form hydrogen has been previously described and sometimes constitutes the second stage of a two-stage process previously described for the preparation of hydrogen. In this process, carbon is formed in a first stage by, for example, decomposition of carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalyst. The carbon is then reacted with steam in a second stage in the presence of the same catalyst to form hydrogen in admixture with carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. It is a feature of this stage that some of the hydrogen which is formed is lost by reaction with the carbon to form methane. Besides the loss of valuable product, there is also the problem of separating the methane from the hydrogen.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to reduce the amount of methane formed in the reaction of the steam and carbon.